Ministers updated Parliament today on a major step forward
by the UK’s Overseas Territories to help improve global corporate
transparency. The written statement welcomes commitments from
eight Overseas Territories to introduce publicly accessible
registers detailing who owns the companies in their
Territory.
The announcements demonstrate the positive
action the UK’s Overseas Territories are taking to help tackle
illicit finance and follows work by Gibraltar,
earlier this year in March, to make their company register
publicly accessible. The Government expects that
beneficial ownership information on businesses
registered in the Overseas Territories will be accessible to the
public by 2023.
The eight UK Overseas Territories which have committed to
implement this measure are; Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands,
the Falkland Islands, Montserrat, the Pitcairn Islands and St
Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, and the Turks and
Caicos Islands.
The Foreign Secretary, , said:
“This is an important step forward by governments from
across the Overseas Territories. I welcome the leadership to
improve corporate transparency, and the message it sends
about the need to tackle illicit finance
globally.”
The UK Government
has led an international campaign to make such
registers a global norm by 2023 and is
hopeful the only remaining permanently
inhabited territory not to make an announcement, the British
Virgin Islands, will make a similar commitment soon. The FCO is
continuing to work with their Government in encouraging them to
take this action.
The UK Government already has arrangements with the
Overseas Territories whereby they provide UK law enforcement
authorities access to information on the ownership of companies
in their jurisdictions. This information improves the ability of
law enforcers to detect money laundering and financial
crime.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
· WMS
statement available here -https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statements/
· The
Government expects all UK Overseas Territories to
have such registers in place by the end of 2023.
